A creative invitation to sample (and cook up) a smorgasbord of art, drama, dance, and music.
Are you hungry for the arts? “Choose buffets or a-la-carte. / Music, / dance, / drama, / art!”
Although many of the poems herein really encompass several arts, a color-coded circle at the beginning of each poem identifies the featured topic. Poems with a green dot for drama include the (very busy) jungle-, pirate-, and alien-themed “When I’m…,” with plenty of R’s to roll and roles to play; “A Dramatic Ride” reenactment of a “ride [on] the Loop-de-Loop, the curviest coaster”; and “Move Into Drama,” which offers movement exercises to “make… / roles seem real.” One dance poem creates silly rhymes to bring sports moves to the dance floor by suggesting “basketball with a teacup pup,” “hockey with a mallard duck,” and “soccer with a lone star tick,” and readers will giggle their way through “The Whammy-Roo,” a new dance demonstrated by two White kids, one nondisabled and one who uses a wheelchair. Creative poetry formats include an acrostic, one all about the rhythm written with musical quarter and eighth notes, another defining musical terms using creative font manipulation, and an ode to shapes in art. “Circle, where would I be… / If you left me? Where would I even start…?” Bright cartoon illustrations starring animals, robots, dinosaurs, and a multiracial ensemble of children fairly scream fun and encourage active, creative participation in the arts. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A creative invitation to sample (and cook up) a smorgasbord of art, drama, dance, and music. (glossary) (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-55455-466-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
The more engaging musical version is available separately through iTunes and other distributors. You won’t hear the typos.
Purposeful and saccharine-sweet, these poems on religious and secular topics take on new life on the accompanying CD.
Wharnsby, a musician, has an appealing folk style, but the poetry on the page sounds forced and often trite. To interest young children in diversity, he writes such lines as “People are a lot like candy! / There’re [sic] all so different and dandy.” Describing “Piles of Smiles” that have been hidden away, he laments: “Someone misplaced the key, / causing global tragedy.” The poems range from the personal “I had a Chirpy Chick,” in which the narrator focuses on love for a pet and love for her grandmother, to a didactic poem entitled “The Mosque.” Typographical mistakes abound, with the use of “their” for “they’re” in the poem “Prayer” and in the example above, among others. Vibrantly colored flowers and plants, echoed in the handsome prayer rugs that illustrate “Prayer,” curl their way around multiracial children and adults. Most adult women wear hijab, as do some girls. With more and more Muslim families in North American communities, there is certainly a need for books of this type. Unfortunately, as with much other religious poetry collections for children, the message takes precedence over the words.
The more engaging musical version is available separately through iTunes and other distributors. You won’t hear the typos. (Poetry. 5-9)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-86037-444-2
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Kube Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Welcome, heart-gladdening poems that never come amiss.
Prelutsky is back to make your day better, even if it’s already a good one.
Here come 103 more poems from the master of silliness; the guy must dream in poetry, his output is so steady and strong. And he is everywhere in the poetic world. He tackles grief—a young gent on the afternoon his hamster died: “It was a poor, unpleasant pet / That I should probably forget. / It never had a proper name… / I miss it deeply, all the same.” He introduces a disarmingly honest goblin—“I have an awful odor, / An unattractive voice. / I’m nasty and annoying / By nature and by choice.” He effortlessly turns a haiku conundrum: “All evening I sing, / Happy on a lily pad, / Celebrating spring.” He hands readers new words, little gems, for them to play with—“easy to abhor” or “Some unsavory subterfuge”—or lets them watch as he turns a world on its head: “…I thought I made an error once— / But I was just mistaken.” Urbanovic’s black-and-white artwork displays a comfortably free hand, roving between loose and scrunched as it depicts Prelutsky’s vast company of players: Gludus, Wiguanas, Appleopards and Flamingoats.
Welcome, heart-gladdening poems that never come amiss. (index) (Poetry. 5-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-201457-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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